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Comment by thrillgore | Hacker News Reader

I know the EU gets a lot of hate on HN, but its clear they're the last force on Earth trying to actively save it from the woes of unchecked capitalism.

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The 1st iRobot vacuum on my local Amazon top sellers list is at the 16 position, the previous spots are Chinese or other brands.

I don’t really know why this deal was blocked, the competition seems to be doing pretty good.

A common sentiment appears to be "Amazon (maybe Big Tech in general?) shouldn't be able to make any M&Rs ever again", as if every acquisition is anticompetitive.

Indeed. Meanwhile here in the US no regulator had problems with Amazon buying One Medical and branching out into doctors offices.

The essence of capitalism is competition. Mega-mergers and acquisitions are antithetical to healthy capitalism since they stifle competition.

I agree. As a US citizen, I am getting increasingly envious of what's been happening there. We need more of it here.

Unfortunately for the EU, there are still places in the world that are comfortable with success. Every time the EU tanks some local company, or prevents it from being viable in the first place, that productivity just goes to the US or China.

Except iRobot was an American company and the FTC was also evaluating the deal so?

I suspect the problem here is a dominant retail player buying a big manufacturer

Even more bizarre, then, that EU regulators can tank American deals

Amazon and iRobot also have EU-based companies, thus get jurisdiction.

FTC is an incompetent agency whose sole goal is to tank each and every deal.

> Every time the EU tanks some local company, or prevents it from being viable in the first place, that productivity just goes to the US or China.

China, where the government promotes local monopolies and sets unreasonable hurdles to foreign competitors? That China?

Yes, that China. Also the China that makes most of our robot vacuums.

Yes, China is basically doing the opposite of what the EU is doing (acting in the economic interest of domestic firms) and they're eating the EU's lunch as a result

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